Go The Distance
by Dreamspirit47
Summary: Astrid Wells is not a normal girl, in fact she has never considered herself to be normal in her entire life, and ever since she and Eric moved to Jasper Nevada, things have gotten even more weird and crazy, but she would never ever regret meeting the Autobots. Her family.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything except for my OC's and the Plot.**

* * *

Astrid woke up to the sound of her radio alarm clock coming to life, it was playing the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles. It took about minute for her cloudy brain to register _why_ her alarm clock was on.

"Oh Snap!" She exclaimed while shooting up and out of her bed in three seconds flat.

She was going to be late for her first day of school in Jasper High, luckily she had the principal of the school Mr. Johnson, take her on a tour of the place a week ago, so that she wouldn't get lost on her way to her classes on her first day.

Getting dressed as quickly as possible, Astrid grabbed her backpack while closing her bedroom door and raced down the stairs, once at the bottom of the staircase she glanced at the small hallway mirror and did a quick once over with her appearance. The front of her long ginger hair was held up by a red headband, her almond shaped hazel eyes shine back at her in the reflection, and just enough makeup on her face to hide light purple bags under her tired eyes. She wore a simple white sleeveless sundress with a blue jean vest, and… Wait a minute.

Astrid gave an exasperated sigh at herself, she had two different stockings on, the one on her left leg was rainbow striped, and on her right leg was a black and white prison striped with her _thankfully_ same red pair of converse shoes. Oh well, she had done a lot worse when it came to her wardrobe.

Moving quickly, but quietly through the living room and to the front door, so as not to disturb Eric, who as always in the mornings, was sleeping on the couch with a beer bottle or two near him. Eric Barton was supposedly her Parental Guardian, although in retrospect it was she who was more of the guardian than he was in a lot of ways, but no matter how much of a pain he was she couldn't help but think of him as an older brother.

And as for her parents, her mother had died while giving birth to her, and her father… Well that was a whole big can of worms that Astrid didn't even want to open ever again if she could help it.

After softly closing the front door, Astrid dashed over to her blue bike and raced as fast as her bike could go down the street, and to hopefully make it before the school bell ringed.

* * *

Astrid rushed down the school halls to her History class ' _I am so late! Hopefully the teacher won't give me detention this time around.'_ She thought almost desperately.

After finding the classroom, Astrid tried to slow her breathing down to normal and straighten herself out before opening the door and calmly walked in.

She was greeted by bunch of confused stares by the students and one glaring one by the teacher. The teacher was a 40 something year old man with balding brown hair and dark eyes, he wore a plain wrinkled button up shirt with a worn out brown business suit. He looked tired and annoyed, most likely from having to deal with disrespectful and ungrateful kids at this school five days out of the week.

"You must be the new student." He growled out annoyedly.

"Yes sir, my name is Astrid Wells." She answered calmly, having experience with angry people almost throughout her life.

"You're late Miss Wells, and the only reason that I'm letting you off the hook this time is because it's your first day, so don't expect to have any more special treatment, got it?" Astrid simply nodded her head yes. "Good. Now go find a seat and be quiet." He snapped.

Astrid's hazel eyes narrowed slightly and pressed her lips in disapproval, but that was all that she did to show of her displeasure at being treated the way that he had her. "Yes sir." She said simply, not wanting to get on his other bad foot, and walked over to the back of the class and sat down.

"Now, back to the lesson at hand, back in the Roman times…" And the lesson went on from there, she did have to say that he knew his figures and facts, but he couldn't really make the story of it all come to life. Luckily history was her best and favorite subject, so even if she fell asleep during this class she would still have an idea as to what was going on.

Halfway through the lesson, Astrid watched as a red haired teenage boy aiming a rubber band at a smaller boy's head, the rubber band shot forward and smacked the back of the smaller boy's head. "Ouch!" The boy cried out.

"You have something to say Mr. Esquivel?" The teacher suddenly said while glaring darkly at the boy.

"N-no Mr. But-Buttkiss." He stuttered out nervously, almost shrinking into his seat.

' _Buttkiss!? No wonder he's so grumpy.'_ She couldn't help but snort inwardly as Mr. Buttkiss turned back to the board on the wall and continuing the lesson.

She saw the same redhead grab for another rubber band and started aiming at the little guy again.

Astrid rolled her eyes and lazily waved her hand, and everything in the room stopped moving. The ticking of the clock on the wall stopped, Mr. Buttkiss's hand froze midway of writing on the board, and all the students in the class froze as well, including the red haired bully who was frozen in mid release of the rubber band.

Astrid got up and out of her seat and calmly walked towards the redhead, not looking the least bit bothered by her surroundings.

"Tisk tisk, now that's not vary nice, it looks like you're going to need to be taught a lesson about bullying kids who are half your height." She said, sounding like a mother giving a naughty child a time out.

Astrid looked around the room with a thoughtful expression on her face, before looking back on the big bully with the rubber band in his hands, then to the grumpy teacher's back. Suddenly she snapped her fingers while exclaiming. "Bingo!" It was so simple, like taking out two birds with one stone, or should she say one rubber band.

She moved over to the little boy with gravity defying brown hair and thick rimmed glasses with chocolate brown eyes behind them. Astrid was a little surprised at how young the kid looked, he couldn't be older than 12 years old at most. ' _He must be one of those prodigy kids.'_ She thought as an explanation for why a little kid like him would be in high school to herself.

As gently as possible, Astrid moved the kid's head just enough to the right, so that the band would just miss it's original target.

Making sure that it would hit it's new target, Astrid walked back to her seat in the back of the class, once seated, she gave another lazy flick of her wrist, and everything came back to life again.

Astrid watch gleefully as the rubber band whistled passed the little kid's ear and headed straight on towards Mr. Buttkiss's balding head with an almost audible _smack_!

The entire classroom fell deathly silent as the students watched with anticipation as Mr. Buttkiss entire body shook with suppressed rage and the redhead bully's form froze in silent shock.

"WHO DID THAT?!" The teacher roared as he turned to face the class, his dark eyes surveying any guilty faces in the group of students in the room until he saw the redhead's arms were still in an aiming position and his slightly horrified face. "Mr. Raider!" He snapped.

The redhead at immediately snapped out of his shock and did his best to look as innocent as possible, which didn't fool anyone in the room.

"Sir?" He tried to ask calmly, though his voice sounded a little on the high side.

"You will be serving detention with me after school Mr. Raider." Mr. Buttkiss snarled.

"Yes Sir." He said with a slight grimace.

The teacher gave an angry humph and continued the lesson without any more interruptions that day.

* * *

It was lunch time as Astrid walked around the school cafeteria, looking for a place to sit and eat her homemade lunch. Astrid almost always made her own food when she goes to school. And she was glad that she did to, because from the looks of the food on student's trays did not look appetizing whatsoever.

Grimacing slightly, Astrid kept walking until she saw the kid with gravity defying hair sitting all alone in one of the corner tables of the cafeteria. Deciding quickly, Astrid started walking towards the little guy.

She stood next to him, waiting for him to notice her as he sadly played with his cafeteria food, which resembled nothing that she could think of except for a grey-ish goop. Making the sound of clearing her throat to get his attention she asked. "Hey, mind if I sit here?"

His head whipped up at her as she asked the question, he had a surprise look on his face, like he couldn't believe that she had asked to sit at the same table as him.

"Oh, uum, sure I don't mind." He says nervously.

"Thanks, my name is Astrid." She said with a friendly smile as she sat on the opposite side of the table.

"Raf."

She looked at his tray of food again and then to her own food. "You know… If you want we can split my lunch in half and share." She offered to him, not wanting him to starve or get sick because of the mysterious cafeteria food, she wouldn't even give it to her worst enemy just by the smell alone.

His face morphed into a look of shock then to embarrassment as he blushed a light red. "Oh no no, I'm fine." He said, but she could see the longing in his eyes.

Astrid rolled her eyes good naturedly with a small smile, while breaking up her lunch and giving him the other half of it, once she was finished with that, Astrid started eating her homemade food without saying another word.

Raf's chocolate brown eyes looked between the grey-ish goop of what was supposedly called food, to Astrid's homemade half of a ham sandwich and sweet potato fries with a hole cinnamon sugar cookie. After a moment or two, Raf pushed his tray of goop away to the side and started digging in the other half of her offered lunch.

Astrid felt the corners of her lips twitching in amusement at the site of it.

* * *

 **Well I hope you liked my new story, I'm going to try updating as much as I can, but no promises. And also to those who follow my other story, all can say is that I'm working on it, but my muse absolutely refuses to help me with writing it, so eventually I'll just get fed up with it and just post it with what I got and hope for the best.**

 **Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please tell me what you think of it by review or PM, again thank you and have a great day or night. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own anything except for my OC's and some of the plot.**

* * *

Two weeks had passed since that shared lunch, both Astrid and Raf had gotten to be very close friends in that short amount of time, with Astrid becoming Raf's sort of secret guardian angel whenever he got into trouble with the bullies in the school. Which happens almost on a daily basis, especially with that red haired guy, who now she knows as Vince.

Vince was basically the biggest bully to worry about in Jasper High, and the only one to stand up to him besides Astrid herself was Jack Darby. Jack was a really cool guy, although a bit of a loner at school.

Astrid couldn't help but get this weird feeling each time she saw him, like they had met once before somewhere, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Which that in itself was weird, considering the fact that she almost never forgets a face, a very useful skill that both Eric and she had taken advantage of in the past.

Raf had become like the little brother that she never had, he would help her out with some of her not so great subjects in school like math and science, while she helped him with history and P. E. and Astrid had to admit that Raf was a genius when it came to computers and technology in general, and apparently the little guy was a master hacker as well.

She had found out by making a bet with him that if he could hack into N.A.S.A. then she would make his favorite dessert (which just so happens to be the cookies that she shared with him on her first day of school.) every day for the rest of the year, and if he couldn't do it, then he would have to do a prank call on all the teachers and students of Jasper High with her.

The poor little guy looked so scared and mortified by the mere idea of it, that his fingers immediately started furiously typing at the keyboard on his laptop.

Needless to say, she lost the bet.

But for the most part they usually just hanged out and played video games and stuff.

The day started out just like any normal day in Jasper, Astrid got up, got dressed while giving Eric her secret wake up juice for his hangover so that he could get to work in a somewhat agreeable mood. Eric worked at an old music store in town, the owner was a nice old man who doesn't get out very much anymore because of the arthritis in his legs, but whenever he could manage it, he would always come by and visit the store to see how it was doing.

So after that she went to school, survived the teacher's lessons and assignments while dealing with Vince and his gang, have lunch with Raf and as soon as the bell rang both she and Raf hit the town. Since Astrid was still new, Raf was the one to show her around the little town of Jasper Nevada, today Raf decided to take them under the overpass of the main highway.

It was completely empty of people, unless you count the cars driving on the overpass, but for the most part it was empty.

"Alright Raf, what's this super secret surprise of yours already?" Astrid asked a little exasperated, but still curious as to what it was considering he had been hinting at it all throughout the day.

Raf had compared her to a cat once because of her curiosity to about almost everything.

On the last day of school in their first week, Raf had invited her to come to his house for dinner... Well, more like his mom invited her through him on his phone, but it was basically the same thing.

She made sure to call Eric to tell him that she would be late on getting home, but all she got was a pre-recording of his groggy voice saying to leave a message at the beep, she had tried her best to not feel hurt by him not answering, but it did nevertheless. And so, like always she made sure that her voice sounded nonchalant before leaving him a voice message saying that she would be late and to not worry.

Astrid had enjoyed her time with Raf's family, his mother was a great cook, especially when it came to her Mexican dishes, she had made chicken enchiladas, refried beans with the cheese on top with rice on the side, and apple pie taquitos with cinnamon and honey sprinkled on top.

The last one wasn't really a traditional Mexican dish, but was still extremely delicious nevertheless.

His siblings were nice, at least the ones that she met were, and his dad was off on a business trip in California at the time.

And you're probably still wondering why Raf called her a cat? Well… It was mostly because of her habit of asking lots of questions, like what it was like to be their family and what this object was and that is, but it also probably helped that whenever she yawned it sounded like a cat's meow.

"Alright, just close your eyes and hold out your hands. And _NO_ peaking!" He instructed while rummaging through his backpack.

Astrid barely manage to not roll her eyes at him before closing her eyes and holding her hands out in front of her as instructed. She waited a few seconds before she felt something being put into her hands. It had four rubber wheels, it weighed about three pounds if she had to guess and it was plastic on top while the underside had some sort of mental plating.

"Ok… You can open your eyes now." He said sounding excited with only a little bit of nervousness in his voice.

Opening her eyes, Astrid immediately looked down at the object in her hands and felt them widen slightly in wonder.

It was one of those remote control cars, but there was so much more detail than what you get at a store, and it looked like it was modeled after her dream car, a white ford mustang with gold racing stripes.

Astrid could feel her eyes starting to sting with suppressed tears, she had been given very few gifts in her life, she now only had Eric as the closest thing to family that she's ever had in her hole life, and while he was great in his own way they both were not the best at expressing their own affections towards one another, especially after Jacqueline's death.

"I remembered that every time we played a racing game, you would always pick a mustang with a similar color scheme. I hope you like it." Raf said while looking down at his shoes as he shuffled them nervously.

Astrid looked at him, her hazel eyes shining with suppressed emotions "Like it. I love it! Raf how long did it take you to make this?" She asked, sounding touched.

Raf, still looking down at his feet and hearing that she not only just liked it, but loved it, started to blush lightly around the ears. "Only about a week." He mumbled.

"Only a week?! Raf that's amazing!" She exclaimed in amazement while taking a closer examination of the toy car.

Raf's ears grew a little redder at hearing her complement before he put his hand back into his backpack and pulling out another toy car, only this one was yellow with black stripes and also it looked like it was modeled after a camaro.

"I thought we could have a race with these." He gestured with the yellow and black toy car in his hand and the one in her's.

Astrid could feel the smirk forming on her face. "You're on."

* * *

Hours later Raf and Astrid were neck to neck, it was ten to nine as Raf was in the lead with Astrid on his tail.

"I'm going to win this time." Astrid announced triumphantly as her car got into the lead.

"I don't think so." Raf argued back as he pushed his car to go even faster, going just past her own car and went through the finishing line first. They had made their backpacks as a makeshift finish line, both were about three feet apart form each other.

"Yes!" He crowed happily throwing his arms up in the air in victory.

Astrid groaned loudly in defeat while letting herself lean her back against the concrete wall, only just now noticing the soreness in her back and neck, and especially in her aching fingers as well, but in her mind it was all worth it in the end, if it made Raf smile like he was on top of the world then it was most definitely worth some achiness, besides it was a smile she didn't see very often on the little guy.

This was usually how most of their gaming went, ether he would win or she would depending on the game, and sometimes they would find themselves evenly tied.

Suddenly Raf's phone started ringing, grabbing his phone from one of his jeans pockets and answered it. "Hi Mama. Racing with Astrid. Right at the street. K just five more minutes. Love you too." He hanged up his phone and put it back into his pants pocket.

He looked up at her as she straighten up her back off the wall. "My Mom what's me back home." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Astrid looked down at her broken wrist watch, it was made of simple gold medal with the square glass face that was cracked, the littlest hand rested on the seven and the biggest hand almost on the three, making it forever stuck in the position of seven thirteen.

She didn't really need to look at a clock to know what time it was, it was mostly just for show, so that she wouldn't freakout anybody who asked her the time or something like that, she always knew what time it was thanks to her time senses has she liked to call it. And because of the internal clock inside of her own head she know that they had been racing for about two hours, eight minutes and thirty three seconds. "Yeah, we should probably get back to our own homes." She said while getting up to stretch a little.

They then suddenly heard a scream from up above from them, they both looked up with wide eyes as they watch just in time to see a blue motorcycle come flying through the air above their heads and landed just several feet away from them.

"Wow." Astrid vaguely heard Raf say as the toy car controller slipped out of his hand and falls down onto the ground with a clatter.

On the motorcycle was… ' _Jack_!?' He sounded almost out of breath as he looked towards them and said. "You have no idea."

Just as suddenly as Jack had appeared, a pair of dark purple cars came down towards them and did something that neither of the currently present humans expected them to do. They transformed into giant robots while mid jump, landed on their metal feet and pointed to what Astrid thought was giant laser guns straight towards them.

And that wasn't the last of the surprises that this day seemed to hold for them, the blue motorcycle that Jack had been riding on suddenly transformed as well, but this one was completely different from the other two, this one was shorter in height and the most glaring difference was that it looked a lot more female than the other two giant robots.

"This ends here Cons." The female robot said as she gave the other two giant robots a murderous look with her shining blue eyes that were filled with hatred on her frowning metal face.

Astrid couldn't help but be surprised at the raw emotions that she could see and feel coming off of the blue female like robot. ' _Is it possible for giant robots to have the same emotions as a human's? And if so, then what did they do to make her look at them like that?'_ but before she could analyze this thought any further her mind was snapped back into the present by Jack, who had quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her with him and Raf as they moved out of the way so that they wouldn't get ran over by the blue robot that was now charging straight toward the other two giant robots with a surprising amount of speed as they started shooting at her.

The blue robot was able to easily dodge the laser guns as she raced towards them and once she was close enough, she started punching them like they were her own personal punching bags.

"What are they?" Raf asked.

"Talking cars that turn into robots, or the other way around." Jack answered uncertainly.

"I think it's the other way around." Astrid put in her own two cents to the question.

"This. Is. For. Cliff!" She yelled as her metal fisted hands and feet pounded into one or the other of the two with each word that she said, but when she threw in her last punch to the face of one the other robots, it paused and gave the female robot to what Astrid guessed was a malicious glare of some kind considering she couldn't see its face at all.

The blue female robot suddenly backed up and started doing backflips to avoid being shot, but luck didn't seem to be on her side as one of the red bolts of light caught her in the chest and she was sent flying backwards and landing harshly on the concrete floor with her back, making an ear splitting screeching sound.

And then suddenly _another_ giant robot transforms through mid air just after jumping off the highway bridge and lands perfectly on top of one of the two purple robots head while also punching his metal fist into the other one's face.

' _Sheesh, it's like raining giant metal robots out here.'_ Astrid thought sarcastically.

This robot was different from the others, it's paint job was mostly yellow with some black in there, it's eyes were blue like the female robot's own, and he did kinda reminded her of a bumblebee for some reason. It was probably the paint and also the car doors on his back that made it look like he had wings.

After he was done with stepping on one of the purple robot's head that Astrid noticed that he was about to step on Raf's toy car. "Wait-!" She tried to call out, but it was already too late as the yellow robot crushed the little toy car with its big metal foot.

The yellow bot looked down in surprise as he lifted his foot to see that he stepped on a toy car… or at least whatever remained of it.

The yellow bot turned towards Raf and started making R2-D2 like sounds.

"No problem, really." Raf answered back.

Before Astrid could wrap her mind around the fact that Raf seemed to be able to understand what the robot was saying, the same robot was suddenly shot in the chest by one of the bad robots and was now laying face first onto the ground.

Just as the yellow bot was trying to get up one of the purple robots deliberately stepped hard onto his head has retaliation for stepping on its own head. Then the two bad robots started charging up the weapons on their arms as the yellow bot turned around to face them.

"Leave him alone!" Raf suddenly yelled bravely at them.

Astrid didn't know if she wanted to congratulate him for his bravery, or wanted to smack him on the back of his head for his stupidity as the two purple robots looked down towards them and pointed they're now charged up weapons at them instead of the yellow bot.

"Please." He added weakly.

Astrid immediately put herself in front of both Raf and Jack, knowing that she would have a better shot at surviving one of those blasts than them. Jack leaned down towards Raf, looking ready to run.

"Bad call." He said to him.

The purple robot on the right started walking maliciously towards them.

"Run! Run now!" Astrid yelled out as she turned around towards the boys while wildly gesturing with her hands to get them moving. And run they did, but while running for their lives, Astrid remembered that both her's and Raf's backpacks and the toy car that Raf made for her were still out there in the middle of the giant robot smackdown.

With a low moan of frustrated despair, Astrid made sure that both boys were in front of her before she used her abilities. No need for them to see how she jumped from one place to another within a blink of an eye to them.

She twirled around on her heels facing the big giant robot that was behind them and raised her hand in a stopping motion like a crossing guard and whispered calmly.

"Stop."

And just like what happened on her first day of school in history class and like every other time before and after that, the time around her suddenly stopped.

Taking in a deep breath to calm her somewhat frazzled nerves and then letting it out slowly, she put her hand down to her side and walked around the now frozen giant robot in front of her and towards the two backpacks and toy car, once there, she quickly grabbed the toy car and shoved it into her pack then swiped Raf's off the ground and pulled both over her shoulder.

While her main powers were her ability to slow down time it self around herself to the slowest possible point, she had never actually stopped time completely before. The reason for this was because she was actually scared of trying it, it's like that feeling you get whenever you're walking into an unknown place that looks perfectly normal, but something inside of you is telling you to run, getaway and never look back, like you're not supposed to be there. And it also didn't help that her fear of it only grew tenfold with the theory talk about how the universe might end if she ever tried to do it, at least that's one of the theories that she and Doctor Bishop had before everything derailed.

One of her other powers were to be able to see other people's timelines, but she usually didn't like to look at it unless she had the permission of that person or as a last resort, because looking into someone's timeline was like watching someone else's home videos of their entire life, their past, their present, and their future.

Only it was so much more intimate than that, to put it simply, she sees, feels, hears and smells everything that they do, she subconsciously becomes one with them within her own mind and lives within the lines of memories of past and potential futures that have yet come to pass. The first time she tried to use this power, she accidentally put herself into a coma for a few weeks, if it hadn't have been for Eric she would probably still be in that coma for all she knew.

Astrid's hazel eyes analyzed her surroundings, trying to see if there was an easy way out here for her and the boys to escape, then she spotted a large drainage pipe in the direction that the boys motionless forms were running towards.

' _Clever boys.'_ She thought almost fondly as she walked back over to them, but paused thoughtfully as she stood beside the robot that was chasing after them.

Astrid's eyes looked up and down it's body, seeing if there was any weaknesses that she could use to their advantage of not getting caught, and then she saw it as a little devious grin slowly formed upon her face.

"Oh, this looks like it could be important." She said innocently as her hand went for the exposed wires on the back of it's knee joint and roughly pulled on the wires until they broke apart, small sparks started flying until her hand let go of the live wire and it froze like everything else around her.

That was another thing about her powers, so long as she was touching it, it would work normally no matter how much she slowed time, this also works with people if she wanted it to as well.

Nodding to herself in satisfaction Astrid jogged her way back towards the boys as she released the time around the area. Everything started slowly moving back to normal again just as Astrid got herself back behind the boys as they all raced to get to the large pipe.

Once there, they all heard the sound of metal crashing onto concrete, whipping their heads at the sound to see what happen, only to find that the robot chasing them was down on the ground, looking at it's leg in what was mostly likely in confusion before turning its sharp gaze onto Astrid.

Astrid felt a small shiver of fear going up her spine, making her shoulders and back tense up with anticipation as to what it might do next. ' _Uh-oh, I'm in trouble now.'_ She thought worryingly.

Jack was the first one to take action as he jumped straight into the pipe and then easily grabbed Raf to pulled him up into the pipe as well. "Astrid!" Jack shouted her name to get her out of whatever staring contest that she and the robot where having.

"Right. Sorry." She said quickly as she jumped into the pipe with them, Jack in the front, leading further down into the pipe tunnel with Astrid at the end of the rear of the small group, and then with Raf in between them. Suddenly, Astrid felt something sharp and metal grab at one of her ankles.

Yelping in frighten surprise, Astrid looked down towards her ankle only to see a big metal hand gripping it tightly, so tight, that she was starting to lose all blood circulation with her foot.

"Astrid!" Raf cried in horror as he grabbed her hands as strongly as a 12 year old could, while Astrid was dragged back out of the pipe tunnel. Jack had heard Raf's horrified cry and turned around to ask what? But then he saw what was happening and immediately grabbed Raf around the middle and started pulling the both of them back in as best as he could, but was slowly being dragged out as well.

There was a sudden sound of metal hitting metal, making a loud clanging sound from outside of the drainage pipe. The metal hand's grip on her suddenly slackened, making her fall down with an _oomph_ as the breath was knocked out of her.

All three looked towards the entrance to see that instead of the evil robot, it was the yellow one that Ref had helped earlier as it looked at them through the entrance making more R2-D2 like noises.

"Thank you." Raf said gratefully.

"Yeah, thank you." Astrid added sincerely, as she got back onto her feet, looking at the yellow bot with gratitude in her eyes.

The yellow bot said something in his own way that sounded like 'Your welcome' and then went back into the chaos.

Jack grabbed the both of them "Come on, don't look back." He ordered as he firmly pulled the both of them further into the tunnel.

"What did we just see?" Raf asked.

"No idea and I'm not sure I want to find out." Answered Jack as his grip tighten on both Raf's shoulder and her left hand in reassurance that the both of them were still there to himself.

Astrid stayed silent as the three of them walked down into the tunnel, but gave to what she hoped was a comforting squeeze through Jack and her's linked hands. A moment later, he squeezed back.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, hope you all enjoyed reading this, I just finished it today.**

 **Also thank you for all of you who followed and favorited this story, and a special thank you to clashingHeartsofChocolate, Skyress98 and AllSpark Princess for reviewing and for your encouragement for me to continue this story.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own anything except for my OC"s and a little bit of the plot.**

* * *

"And the con's would have been scrap metal if I hadn't been distracted by the human." Arcee reported to their leader Optimus Prime as he stood with his back to them, looking intensity at the readings on the computer screens.

"Human?" He asked.

" **Three, two boys and one girl.** " Bumblebee answered while holding up three fingers.

"Two boys and a girl." He stated more to himself than to the others in the room with him as he thought about the complications to this new predicament that they were apparently in.

"I guess two others caught us in action. l don't know, I was a little busy at the time." Arcee said in defense of her actions.

"If the Decepticons are targeting us, anyone perceived as our ally will be in grave risk." Their leader told them gravely.

* * *

Both she and Raf were waiting for Jack under the tree that was next to the road. It was a nice day to be outside in Jasper, not too hot, but not cold ether, it was just about right with a clear blue sky. But the weather was the most furthest thing from her mind at that moment as Astrid leaned her back against the tree that Jack and she agreed upon meeting at with her arms crossed over her chest, her face carefully blank, while Raf silently stood next to her, both looking to be lost in their own thoughts.

She knew that she should probably be thinking about the giant robot smackdown that they had all witnessed not 24 hours ago, but she couldn't help but think about the scene that she had came home to with Eric. He had been more drunk than usual, which was saying something considering that he got himself at least a little bit tipsy every day, if not every few hours. She understood why he drank, god did she know, but it didn't mean that she had to like it. If she had anyone to blame for his condition, it would be herself mostly, it was her fault that he was like this, drinking himself to death in a desperate attempt to wash away the consent pain and the grief.

"Hey Raf, hey Astrid." Jack greeted from behind them.

Both of their heads snapped towards him, Astrid was the first to find her voice out of the two of them. "Hey Jack, what took you so long." She asked with a slight smile, trying to get herself to release some of the uneasiness that she felt.

His expression turned stormy as he said with a slight growl in his voice. "Vince." Was all he needed to say on the subject for her to know that nothing good had happened.

Her smile quickly turned into an unhappy frown, she wanted to ask him what had happened, but knew better than to broach the subject of the over cocky rooster that was Vince.

"Sooo, what are we going to do with our giant problem?" She asked instead, making sure to be as vague as possible in case anyone was listening to them.

"I think we should just keep it between the three of us and forget that anything happened." He answered, calming down at the change of subject.

Astrid was about to open her mouth to protest at his answer, how could he possibly think that all that they had witnessed last night would just suddenly disappear. It was foolish to think that something like this would just simply go away, and she was go tell him just that, but before she could, she heard a car beeping its horn loudly while coming their way. Beep! Beep! Beeep! They all heard as a yellow and black striped car rolled towards them. "Jack, Astrid look!" Raf gasped in excited amazement, hardly believing along with them that the subject matter of their conversation was suddenly coming towards them.

"Oh not again!" Groaned Jack.

Once coming to a complete halt, the robot disguised as a car opened it's doors and started talking in it's own language again, but Astrid got the gist of it, although just to make sure she still looked to Raf for confirmation, just in case her assumptions were wrong.

"It wants us to get in." Jack stated, coming to the same conclusion as her.

"No, just Astrid and me." Raf corrected Jack's statement.

"How do you know that?" Jack asked, bewildered by Raf correcting him.

"It said so." He answered simply.

"What!?" Jack exclaimed in shock.

"Yours is over there." He continued casually, pointing over towards the blue motorcycle that was behind them. Astrid couldn't help the smile that was slowly growing on her lips as she and Raf got into the car. "Hey, how's it going." Raf asked the robot in disguise as he got in the passenger's seat as Astrid herself got in on the drivers side. Once they were both completely inside of the vehicle, the doors closed by themselves and the car started burning rubber as they shooted down the road at high speed.

Everyone had introduced themselves, and she found it particularly amusing that she had been able to guess what his name was even before he had told them. After that, Raf and Bumblebee had continued on with their own conversation. It was kinda like listening to one side of a phone call. And while doing so, they had unintentionally made her feel like a third wheel, but she didn't mind all too much at that moment, normally she would be asking questions of her own as well, despite the fact that she could only understand one of the two, but today, her heart just wasn't in it. Her mind just kept replaying the events of what happened last night.

* * *

Astrid was just about to open her front door to her house before she quickly turned around calling out. "Jack!"

Jack stopped walking towards his house as he turned to face her again, wearing a look of confusion on his face. "Yeah?"

They looked at each other for a moment before Astrid opened her mouth. "Thank you Jack. For helping to save me and Raf." She said with genuine sincerity in her voice.

He looked even more confused than before, but she could still see the light embarrassed blush around his cheeks and nose even in the fading light of the sun.

"I didn't really do anything, it was that yellow one that really saved us." He argued lightly, not wanting to take her praise when he didn't feel like he did anything worth to be thanked for.

"But you at least tried, and that's more than what most people would do." She told him with a closed lip smile.

They stared at each other silently for a few moments, like they were really seeing each other for the first time. Jack finally smiled back at her, his blue grey eyes locking with her own hazel ones. "How bout we all meet up under the tree outside the school tomorrow at three, and talk about what we're going to do from there?" He asked her.

Astrid nodded her head in approval. "Sounds good, I'll give Raf the heads up. Good night Jack."

"Night Astrid." He said before turning around to walk back towards his house again, which just so happened to be five houses down the road from her own house.

Turning her head back towards the door in front of her, Astrid took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly before opening the door. Walking into the living room the first thing that she noticed was the strong smell of alcohol, making her nose wrinkle in disgust, the second thing that she noticed was that the lights were off making it dark except for the glow that was coming off the TV, she also noticed Eric sitting on the couch with a beer bottle in one of his hands again like usual, but for some reason this felt different than all those other times she's seen him like this. His pale blue eyes were more cloudy and unfocused than normal, the pale skin around his thin cheeks were a rosy red than their natural paleness, his graying blond hair was even messier than the last time she saw it, and she noticed from the tears and smudges on his red flannel shirt and washed out blue jeans that suggested that he got himself into another bar fight again.

Even though she wasn't really all that worried about him getting hurt in the actual fights that he sometimes gets himself into, what with his ability to read the minds of others that makes it nearly impossible to land a good hit on him, even for her, who had been trained in different types of fighting styles since the age of three. He was always able to see his opponent's next move in their mind before they even physically perform it, but this ability has a terrible side effect on him, he can't ever shut it down. He can hear everyone's thoughts within a one mile radius, he can hear even her own thoughts on a constant daily basis, and even at night when everyone is supposedly asleep he can still hear the voices ringing inside his own head.

It was one of the major reasons as to why he drinks so much, he says that it makes the voices go fuzzy and makes it more bearable to live with, but she knew the real reason why he does this to himself, not that he'll ever admit it.

A quiet wary sigh escapes from her lips as she looked at him with an exasperated expression. ' _Really Eric, can't you just for once not get into a fight every single week?_ ' She thought with slight annoyance.

"Maybe." He croaked out before taking a sip of his beer, his voice was rougher than usual.

Rolling her eyes heavenward, Astrid closed the door behind her, and then started walking towards the kitchen to the fridge in order to see if she could find something to eat, slowing time down, even by just a fraction of it, took a lot of energy from her body. It's why she always tries to have some kind of food with her at all times, just in case.

"So, did anything interesting happen today?" He suddenly asks her, flipping through the channels on the TV.

Astrid's hand froze at the words as she reached out for the leftover mac'n'cheese that she made yesterday. She suddenly started to feel a tiny spark of panic rising up inside of her at the unexpected question. He must of heard Jack and her talking outside of the house. How much did he see and hear? Considering how drunk he looked, probably not much, but probably enough to get his curiosity going.

It wasn't that she didn't want him to know, it was more like she just didn't want to get him unnecessarily involved in something that even she barely knew what was going on herself. She had made a promise with Jacqueline to take care of Eric if anything would ever happened to Jacqueline herself, who had been Eric's rock in life, she always knew how to calm him down when the voices became too much for him. Astrid did her best, but she was nowhere near as good at it as Jacqueline had been.

As casually as possible, Astrid made her frozen hand move to grab the leftovers from the fridge and places it on the kitchen counter closest to the living room, she quickly decided that it was for the best to tell only half of the truth and to try her best to not think about the strange metal giant robots, which was easier said than done.

"Yeah, Raf showed me some more of the town and also made me this really awesome toy car." She started saying, but then her stupid mind betrayed her as the memory with the yellow bot accidentally crushing Raf's miniature car with it's big metal foot flashed within the forefront of her mind so suddenly that she didn't have any time to squash it down before it was too late.

"What was that?" He asked sharply as he turned to face her, his eyes looking like ice as he stared at her intensely in his drunken state.

' _Crap_!'

Astrid couldn't stop the slightest flinch what flitted across her face at his hard stare, but nevertheless stood her ground stubbornly, even knowing that she would never be able to stop him if he ever tried to read her own mind, but she knew that she was at least able to distract him, at least to some degree, so she started playing classical music in her head, specifically something that was Mozart, he hated that.

She watched as his face scrunched up as one of his thick eyebrows twitched violently in annoyance as he unsteadily got up to his feet to stand next to the couch, grasping the back of it for support. Eric was a little over six feet tall, making her five foot and seven inches tall frame look small compared to him. "What are you hiding from me Astrid?" He asked through gritted teeth.

Astrid knew that it wasn't normal for her to be keeping secrets from him, what with him being able to read her mind and all, but this time she just didn't want him to get involved in this, at least for now.

"It's nothing for you to worry about Eric, I'm handling it." She said with forced calm.

His pale blue eyes narrowed even further at her, and then at the edge of her mind, she felt his aura slowly coming closer, and closer into her mind.

"Eric?" She asked in a shaky breath.

He was coming closer now, she could feel him advancing towards her mental walls. Scared, Astrid's breathing became faster, almost to the point where she was hyperventilating. She tried putting all of her focus on distracting him and hiding the memories of metal giants in the darkest corners of her mind as best as she could.

"Eric!" She cried out, real fear coursing through her veins as she felt him take a mental step closer into the very core of her own mind. This wasn't right, Eric had never ever gone this far into her mind without getting her permission first. The alcohol and his somewhat possessive nature must be messing with his head, making him not think clearly, nearly blinded by her rising panic and fear, Astrid did the only thing that she could think of to possibly make him stop in his tracks. She just hoped that he would be able to forgive her for it later.

"Wolf! Stop! Please stop!" She cried out loudly, desperately, her left hand holding her head in slight pain as her right was clenching so tightly that her knuckles turned white on the kitchen counter in order to keep herself standing on her now shaky legs, her eyes were shut tightly, her entire body shaking in shock and fear, but mostly in shock.

As soon as the first word left her lips his advances into her mind suddenly stopped, and then slowly started to recede from her mind. Gathering up whatever courage she had left in her, Astrid opened her scared filled hazel eyes, only to meet with the shocked and horrified pale blue eyes that belonged to Eric.

Without any kind of warning Eric ran out of the living room and went straight towards his upstairs bedroom and slammed his door shut, making the whole foundation of the house shake just a little as he did so.

Taking in shaking breaths, Astrid was able to calm herself down by just a bit before looking up towards the staircase, her face filled with sorrow and regret.

"I'm sorry Eric." She whispered softly.

* * *

After that episode she put the mac'n'cheese back into the fridge, not having the stomach to eat anything at that moment and then went up the stairs to her bedroom to hopefully sleep, but as she had walked past his door she could hear music softly coming through the painted wooden door, she recognized it almost instantly. It was one of the old tapes from his and Jacqueline's days of being in a music band together, before that life had been cruelly ripped away from them forever.

With a heavy heart, she had made her way towards her own bed and without even changing into night clothes, had fallen sluggishly into her bed covers and tried her best to not think about anything at all that night. In the morning she woke up earlier than what was normal for her, deciding that it was for the best to apologize to him first than waiting for him to get his courage together in apologizing to her instead, she got dressed quickly and made her way down the stairs, she had expected him to be laying on the couch like usual during the mornings, but when she didn't see him there she started looking around to find him, but after looking around inside the house, she realized that he was gone.

"Hey Astrid! Astrid look!" Raf's excited voice slowly came into focus as the memories started fading away.

"Hmm." She started as she turned from her position of looking out the window towards Raf, only to see him pointing out with a finger towards the front of the car. Curious, she looked at what he was pointing at and felt her jaw drop just a little at the site before them.

The mountain in front of them was opening as the red rock side of the mountain slid down into the ground and then behind that were ginormous metal doors that started sliding open from either side, revealing a huge tunnel, both She and Raf leaned forward in their seats as they rode through it, and at the end of the tunnel opened a gigantic room with more giant robots in it.

"Cool." She heard Raf say in amazement as her own wide eyes stared at them in awe.

"Whoa." She breathe out so faintly that even she barely heard herself.

The first one was painted a reddish-orange color with mostly white metal plaitings, it looked like it acted like armor for them. He turned to face them as they moved to the center of the huge room. He was taller than Bumblebee by a few feet, and looked little bulkier than him to, but the thing that caught her attention the most was his face, his smooth silver metal plated face was set in a slight scowl with irritated glowing blue eyes looking straight at them.

' _Sheesh, what was his problem?_ ' She couldn't help but think to herself as she looked up at him. They haven't even been in here for less than five seconds and already he was looking at them as if they were a bunch of muddy dogs walking on his perfectly clean white carpet.

The other giant robot was even taller and wider than Mr. Scowly face over there with a military green paint job, he kind of reminded her of one those sumo wrestlers that she saw in Japanese show on the TV once.

Once Bumblebee came to an complete stop, he opened his doors for them, both she and Raf got out at the same time, and as soon as Bumblebee was sure that the both of them were out of the way, so that he along with the blue female robot transformed back into their bipedal forms.

"I thought where were only three?" The reddish-orange and white one asked, walking to stand next to the green bot, looking down at them.

The blue female was the one that answered him, perching one of her hands on her metal hip in a sassy manner. "Didn't you hear Ratchet, humans multiply."

' _Wait what, who else is here?_ ' Astrid thought in confusion, her ginger eyebrows nearly touching as she looked around towards where Jack stood and saw one of the few people at Jasper High that she really didn't want to be here with them.

It was Miko Nakadai, all that Astrid knew about Miko Nakadai was that she was a transfer student from Japan, was extremely loud, and apparently likes to cause a lot of trouble for herself and for those around her, which was one of the reasons as to why Astrid tried her best to avoid her if at all possible. She and Eric had worked to hard on keeping as low of a profile as humanly possible without going completely off the grid, it wasn't easy, but it was definitely a lot better than the lifestyle that they had been forced into living in before they came here to Jasper.

Suppressing a groan within the back of her throat, Astrid walked over to Raf's left and stood there with her arms crossed, while leaning most of her weight on her right leg, causing the left side of her curvy hips to stick out slightly. The leg that was grabbed by one of those robots was still a little bit sore from being in its death grip. She was just lucky that it didn't break her ankle while in the process of grabbing and dragging her back out of that drainage pipe yesterday, she guessed it was the small blessings that counted.

"I'm Raf." Raf said, introducing himself.

"I'm Miko!" Miko said as she ran towards the big green one and started rapidly asking questions like a machine gun. "Who are you?"

"Bulkhead." He answered, looking a little nervous at her coming towards him.

She gasped. "Are you a car? I bet you're a truck, a monster truck! Do you like heavy-metal? How much do you weigh? Ever use a wrecking ball for a punching bag?" She looked like she was going to keep going on and on with her questions until the point where she might actually make herself faint from the lack of oxygen.

Thankfully for everyone's sake, Raf interrupted her with a question of his own. "So if you guys are robots, who made you?"

That, Astrid thought was a good question. Where did these guys come from? Where they made by humans? or where they even from earth at all? She had seen some amazing and horrifying things in her short life that most normal people wouldn't even dream of being possible, so giant metal alien robots weren't to off the scale of possibilities for her.

The one named Ratchet gave a sudden sound of disgust at the question, he rolled his glowing eyes while saying. "Pah-leez ."

Astrid hazel eyes narrowed up at Ratchet, what was his problem? it was a simple question, how did he expect us humans to learn about them if he wasn't even willing to answer their questions, no matter how silly or ridiculous they seemed to him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Raf's shoulders droop slightly as he tried to put on a brave face in front of everyone, but she saw straight through it instantly. Astrid gently placed her right hand on Raf shoulder in silent support, knowing that even though he was trying his best to not show it, but she knew that his confidence in himself had dwindled a little bit at Ratchet's response at his question.

"Hey! Cut him some slack, it was a simple question, how do you expect us to learn if we don't ask questions, no matter how ridiculous they seem to you." Astrid argued hotly. For nearly her whole life, she had been told to not ask questions and to only follow the orders that she was given, and at first she did as they said without question, especially after going through a few of their punishments for her random spurts of rebellion in the past, but it wasn't until she met Doctor Bishop for the first time that she really started to rebel against them. He had encourage her to ask him questions and vice versa, so long as she didn't ask him about his life before he came to that place then he would always answer her questions as honestly as possible for him.

Everyone was silent as they watched her and Ratchet as they glowered at each other, both had their arms crossed over their chests as her golden hazel eyes glared up at him, and he down at her with his glowing turquoise ones.

She suddenly heard and felt loud booming footsteps, making the very ground beneath their feet tremble. Feeling her heart leaping wildly in her chest in surprise and even in a little bit of fear, Astrid whipped her head towards the sound and once again felt her jaw dropping in awe.

If she had thought Bulkhead was big, then this next one took the cake. He was big, no 'big' didn't even begin cover just how freakishly tall he was. Ginormous was more like it. He had to be at least 30 feet tall with a red and blue paint job. Astrid had to crane her neck as far back as it could go just to see his face properly . He had a smooth silver plated face like the rest of them and glowing blue eyes as well.

She watched as he looked at each of them individually before speaking to them in a surprisingly deep baritone voice that sent shivers down her spine.

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots. I am Optimus Prime leader of the Autobots." He said looking down at them, not in a mean or arrogant way, he was just watching them carefully, trying see what our reactions would be to this new information that he had given them.

Both Jack and she looked at each other over Raf and Miko's heads, trying to discern as to who would be asking the questions first. Astrid had noticed that she and Jack had grown a little closer since yesterday, so much so that she was even starting to think that maybe there was a chance at possibly being friends with him instead of just good acquaintances. But she unsurprisingly found herself to be emotionally conflicted with this, it wasn't that she didn't want to have friends, quite the opposite in fact, she would love to have friends that she could count on and them in her, but she knew better than that, she knew that her past would catch up to her eventually, it was only a matter of time before they find her and Eric again.

It was bad enough that she got herself attached to Raf, which was her own fault she knew, she wasn't even sure what had made her go to him so suddenly and share her lunch with him in the first place. Maybe it was that she saw a bit of herself in him when he sat in that big lonely table in the back corner of the cafeteria all by himself on that day?

Whatever it was, she would deal with the consequences of it when the time came, and now with these... Autobots was it? She would have to deal with the consequences of that as well, but that was for another day to worry about.

Astrid gave Jack a subliminal nod of her head to indicate that he should be the one to start asking the questions.

He nodded back at her and then stepped forward to face the hulking giant that was Optimus Prime. "Why are you here?" Was his first question.

"A fair question Jack." Optimus said as he got down on one knee in front of them, making it easier on all of them including himself to be able to see each other without straining themselves out.

"Wait, how did you know his name?" Astrid asked in suspension, she knew that Jack and her hadn't shared their names to them yet, at least as far as she knew of course, but if they knew his name, then it was possible that they would already know her's to, and that was very unsettling for her because that meant that these Autobots had been doing some background research on them, and that could come with some dangerous consequences for both her and Eric.

The Autobot leader looked down at her in slight surprise in his glowing eyes, and now that he was closer, she was able to really see them properly. They were definitely blue alright, they kind of reminded her of aquamarine crystals in a way.

But she could see so much more than that, she could see someone who was a fierce and a strong leader. Someone who had seen things that they wished that they could forget, but knew that if they did that, then it would mean that they could possibly be making the same mistakes from the past again or even dishonoring the lives of those who had sacrificed themselves for something that they had believed in. It was something that she could relate with to some degree.

He tilted his head a little in curiosity at her before answering her question. "Arcee had reported that she overheard him saying his name to another human before being chased by the Decepticons. May I inquire as to what your name is?"

Astrid could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, making them turn pink in her embarrassment. 'Gee I sure do have a way in making a good first impressions don't I.' She thought scathingly to herself. It would seem that her suspicious and paranoid mind had missed judged these guys just a little.

"It's Astrid. Astrid Wells."

"Then it is nice to meet you Miss Wells." He said while he giving her a respectful nod of his head.

"Just Astrid please, there's no need for formalities." It felt weird for her to be called 'Miss Wells' by him for some reason, but that was a thought for another time.

He gave another nod to show that he heard her request, before turning back to face Jack again. "To answer your question. We are here to protect your planet from the Decepticons."

"The jokers who tried to bump us off last night." The blue one, who Astrid assumed was Arcee clarified for them.

Looking back towards Optimus, Jack asked his second question. "Ok… Why are they here?"

"In part, they are here because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war." He told them.

"Why were you fighting a war?" Raf asked.

"For most, over control of our world's supply of energon, the fuel and life blood of all Autobots and Decepticons alike. The combat was fierce, and endured for centuries; In the beginning I fought alongside one whom I considered a brother. But in war ideals can be corrupted and it was thus, that Megaton lost his way."

Miko gave a sudden yawn of being bored before saying. "Is there going to be a quiz?" While lazily twirling her little ponytail with her fingers and tosses a look at her fellow humans that says; Ain't I the coolest or what.

Before Astrid could even think about it, her body had already started moving on its own accord towards Miko and just as she got herself behind Miko, she lightly slapped Miko on the back of her head.

"Ow!" Miko exclaimed, more out of shock at the act of being slapped than of actually being hurt by it. "What was that for?!" She barked out annoyedly as she span around to face Astrid, who was taller than her by a few inches and was glaring down at her in disapproval with her arms crossed over her chest.

Astrid's hazel eyes narrowed even further at her question. "He just shared something with us that

was obviously painful for all of them to be reminded of, and you have the nerve to treat this whole situation as if it's some type of video game that's for your entertainment!"

Whatever Miko's response was to her statement, she never found out, because Jack had quickly interrupted her and miko's building argument before they made it even worse. "So what is Megaton or any of this have to do with with us?

"Megaton has not been seen or heard from in some time, but if his return is as imminent as I fear, it could be catastrophic."

"Well, isn't that all just sunshine and rainbows." Astrid muttered sarcastically.

* * *

 **A/N: So there you go, hope you enjoyed reading this. I know this chapter didn't have a lot of action in it nor does it have too many new things to see, but now you guys have officially met Eric for the first time. Yay! I hope I wrote that part of the story okay? I wasn't sure if it was good or not.**

 **Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this and thank you for all of you who have favorited, followed and for reviewing this story, it really does mean a lot to me.**

 **Thank you again, tell me what you think of this either by review or PM.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own anything except for my OC"s and some of the plot.**

* * *

Suddenly all of the Autobots were staring at her in surprise, even their leader Optimus Prime was now eyeing her almost intensely, like he was looking for something, as to what? She had absolutely no idea.

Astrid looked back at Jack, Raf and Miko to see if they had any clue as to why she was suddenly the center of attention, but they all looked just as lost as she was.

Feeling very confused and even the tiniest bit unsettled by the many eyes that were drilling uncomfortably into her. "What!?" She finally burst out, not being able to withstand the tension that was suddenly around her. "Was it something that I said?" She asked feeling extremely bewildered by their unexpected and even weirder behavior at her supposedly simple sarcastic comment.

It seemed as if they were all snapped out of some sort of weird trance, because all of the Autobots in the room suddenly looked away from her as one, looking uncomfortable and somewhat sad, but Optimus continue to stare at her. Only this time instead of his glowing eyes looking intensely at her, she notes that there was now a deep sadness in them and... was that disappointment that she saw in them as well? Why would he be disappointed? Of her? But why? None of this made any sense to Astrid at all.

He seemed to have notice her growing bewilderment and concern, for his silver plated face changed into one of sadden disappointment to an understanding and reassuring expression towards her.

"Yes and no." He answered her question softly. "What you said just now was something that an old friend of ours used to say sometimes." He told her, but she could hear the wishful tone in his voice.

Astrid recognised that tone almost instantly, it was the same tone of voice that Eric would use on those extremely rare occasions where he would actually want to talk about Jacqueline with her, and she could only count how many times that had happened with one hand and still have some fingers left over.

"Oh." Was all that she could say to that, what else could she say. A strange mixer of curiosity and guilt suddenly came over her just then. Guilt for obviously bring up something that was painful for them to remember, and as for her curiosity, she wanted to know just who this apparent friend of theirs was. Were they human or were they Cybertronian? Were they dead or alive? Judging from the expressions on all of the Autobots faces this person was most likely dead.

Astrid was brought out of her thoughts as Optimus Prime moved to stand back up to his full height. "In any case, since now you know of our existent. I fear that as of last night, the Decepticons know of yours." He told them.

"Got it, if we spot any strange vehicles call 911. Can we go now?" Jack questioned impatiently.

Astrid whipped her head to look at him like he was crazy. Was he really serious about what he just said about calling the cops if they saw a Decepticon?

"Are you crazy?" She asked him incredulously.

"Yeah!" Miko exclaimed loudly while standing next to her, making Astrid jump a little in surprise at the sudden loud noise.

"I'm living in a dream here in bot sauna, and I am not going to let you or anyone else shatter it." Miko said while pointing a threatening finger at Jack.

There was a small moment of silence. "Umm." Astrid started to say. "That's not exactly what I meant, but I get your point." Astrid hesitantly said to Miko before quickly turning her attention back onto Jack to continue with telling him her problems with his supposed plan of action.

"What I want know is how do you expect some small town cops to actually be able to take down however many 20 or so foot tall of giant metal alien robots? They probably have of a more likelier chance of being flatten into pancakes than arresting them, and on that note, how would they even be able to arrest them in the first place?"

"Ok ok, I get it. Bad idea." He interrupted her before she could continue on with her nitpicking apart of his plan while holding up his hands in surrender.

"It is best that you four remain here under our watch, at least until we can determine our enemies intentions." Optimus told them before they could get into anymore arguments on the subject.

"Optimus, with all due respect the human children are in as much danger here as anywhere." Ratchet protested.

"Children?" Both Astrid and Jack question in indignation at the same time without noticing.

Ratchet continued on. "They have no protective shell, if they get underfoot they will go… squish." And with that, he demonstrated this by stomping his big metal foot at them. Astrid could feel Raf coming a little closer towards her as he took a step back from Ratchet's threatening foot.

And while Astrid didn't flinch like the others did at Ratchet's actions, but it still didn't mean that she couldn't feel the nervous that started to creep it's way up inside of her as the echoing sound of his foot meeting the ground rang in her ears with a forbidding clang.

"Then for the time being Ratchet, we must watch where we step." Optimus responded with a small amount of humor in his deep voice.

Suddenly green lights started flashing all around inside the main room while low level alarms went off in the Autobot's base.

All of Astrid's natural senses went on high alert at all of the loud noise and flashing lights. What was happening? Where they being attacked or was it something else?

"What's that?!" Jack asked in alarm.

It was Bumblebee who answered the question, but unfortunately they couldn't really understand that he was saying... well except for Raf of course, which reminded her, she needed to ask him about how he was even able to understand him when the others and herself couldn't even do that, but decided to ask him about it later.

"Proximity sensor, someone must be up top." Raf translated for those who didn't know how to speak Bumblebee.

"It's agent Fowler." Ratchet announced grimly.

' _Agent?!' As in secret service or government!'_ Astrid thought in alarm, her eyes widening as panic spiked up like a geyser inside of her chest. But before she could completely lose herself in her rising panic and fear, she quickly shut her eyes closed and forced herself to take in deep and slow calming breaths. ' _Inhale…and now exhale… Inhale...and exhale…'_ After a few more calming breaths, Astrid was able to open her eyes again, only feeling little more calmer now.

The breathing technique was something that she would use for whenever she felt one of her power attacks coming on, her powers were mostly connected with her emotions, which is why her powers would usually act out whenever she felt scared or just extremely emotional.

She suddenly noticed that Optimus was talking to them, but she was only able to catch the last bit of what he was saying. "It may be best if you do not meet him at this time." He told them.

Astrid had no disagreements with that. Quickly. Raf, Jack, Miko and Astrid raced to find a hiding spot, and they found one by hiding themselves behind a raised platform with a yellow staircase attached to it.

She listened as the elevator doors slid open and a male voice immediately starts talking in loud irritation. "Seven wrecks and thirdly four fender-benders, a three hour traffic jam, and a particular note, numerous reports of a speeding motorcycle of unknown make and a black and yellow custom muscle car."

During agent Fowler's rant, Astrid noticed that Jack was poking his head out to see what was going on, Astrid immediately slapped his arm to get his attention.

He whipped his head towards her and shot her with an irritated yet confused look.

"You're going to get us caught if you keep doing that." She whispered to him in warning.

He gave a nod of his head to show that he heard her and then went back to listening in on the conversation between the Autobot's and the agent.

"So, anything you care to get off your tin chest Prime?" Agent Fowler mockingly asked.

"We have the situation under control agent Fowler." Optimus told him calmly.

"They're back aren't they?" The agent asked, even though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

"If you are referring to the Descriptions, I have doubts that they ever left, your planet is much too valuable."

"Then it's time to wake up the Pentagon." Agent Fowler suggested.

"Hear me Agent Fowler, we are your best possibly your only defense against the Decepticon threat." Optimus advised the agent gravely.

"Says you." Argued Fowler.

"Hey fleshie!" Bulkhead called out suddenly. "Did anyone get splattered on that freeway? Team Prime knows when to use force, and how much to use." He said intimidatingly as he grabbed something that looked like a bigger version of a claw arm and then squeezed until it finally broke in his hand as smoke and fiery sparks spewed out of it.

Astrid felt a shiver of unease go through her as she imagined herself being in those hands as they squeezed the life out of her.

"BULKHEAD! I NEEDED THAT!" Ratchet exclaimed angrily.

"Enough." Optimus ordered before turning his full attention back onto Fowler.

"Military involvement will only result in catastrophe, perhaps you can condone widespread human casualties Agent Fowler, I however, cannot."

"Then do us both a favor and handle this Prime, under the radar." Agent Fowler said before walking back into the elevator.

"Or I will." Were his last words before the doors to the elevator closed.

Bulkhead moved to stand next to his leader. "Pretty big bearings, for a human."

"Agent Fowler is concerned for his world Bulkhead, as he should be." Optimus told him.

Astrid, Jack, Raf and Miko all sighed in relief simultaneously before they slowly started walking out from behind their hiding spot.

"Well, he sounded like a pretty happy guy." Jack said sarcastically.

Arcee gave an amused snort. "Agent Fowler is anything _but_ happy most of the time."

Shaking her head, Astrid started to move toward the stairs to get a better look around the place, but for just that one split second she forgot about her injured ankle and put to much weight on it.

"Ow… Stupid-" Astrid hissed in pain as she grabbed ahold of the yellow railing to keep her balance.

Both Bumblebee and Raf were the first ones to hear her hiss of pain since they were the closest to her.

"Astrid, are you okay?" Raf asked in concern as he walked up to her. She also heard Bee talking to her as will, but as usual she didn't understand a word that he was saying.

She put on her signature closed lip smile, which even she could feel was a bit strained at best, but it was important for her to not have Raf needlessly worrying about her.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just - Hey!" She exclaimed as she suddenly felt a weird sensation going through her, snapped her head around to find the source of it. And she found that it was Ratchet, and he was scanning her, without her permission might she add.

"What are you doing?" She demanded annoyedly up at him, hands on her hips. How did she not hear him coming towards her? Either he was that good or her hearing was finally going bad from playing her music a little too loud at night.

"I'm scanning for any injuries that you obviously have." he answered dryly as he looked at the medical computer on his arm.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Astrid stared up at him in slight irritation.

"I'm fine." She answered tensely. "I just stubbed my toe was all."

"Oh really," He scoffed back at her. "Because from what my scans say is that you have a sprained ankle."

"Astrid." She heard Jack say from her left.

She turned her head in his direction, before tilting her head slightly in question at him.

He had an unreadable expression on his face as he stared at her. "Why didn't you say anything?" He asked her softly.

She snorted without any real humor in it before saying. "Well I'm sorry, but we were a little busy with trying to not get shot and crush into meaty puddles on the ground by giant freakin robots at the time... Besides I didn't even start to feel it until this morning." That was a bit of a lie, she actually started to feel the pain as they were walking through the tunnels, but no need for them to know that.

"Either way, if you will allow me, l would like to examine your injury in order to make sure that there is no permanent damage to your leg." Ratchet offered, although it sounded more like an order than an actual request.

"Really it's fine," She insisted exasperatedly up to him. "I'm a fast healer, I should be back to normal in no time by tomorrow."

His glowing turquoises narrowed down at her. "Fast healer or not, it would be best if you allow me to look at it." He argued sharply back at her.

"I…" She started to say before she suddenly felt small hands as they gently grabbed ahold of her lower left arm in a slightly desperate attempt to get her attention.

She swiftly turned her head down towards Raf, who was looking up at her in concern with his big chocolate brown eyes. She looked at him with a silent question in her own golden hazel eyes.

"Just…" He started to say quietly up to her. "Just let him take a look at it…. Please." He begged to her.

She looked down at Raf for a few more seconds before closing her eyes and sighing in defeat. "Alright." She muttered reluctantly.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey everyone, I'm so sorry for taking so long, I actually meant to post this months ago, but things happened in my life that made it difficult for me personally to write anything at that moment. But now I'm back and will post the next chapter as soon as possible.**

 **Thank you for all of you who have reviewed, favorited and followed this story. It means a lot to me.**

 **And also please review or PM me, getting feedback no matter how small it is helps a lot with my writing process. Again thank you and I hope that you are enjoying the story.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own anything except for my OC's and some of the plot.**

* * *

"Blasted earth tech!" Ratchet exclaimed loudly in annoyance, almost slamming his clenched fist down onto the keypads of the computer, but stopped himself just before doing so, thinking better of it, he instead just glared hard at the computer screen in front of him.

Astrid looked up at him from the office wheelchair that she found herself to be sitting in with her legs crossed as her left hand apsetly played with her loose shoulder length ginger hair, as per doctor's orders, she was ordered to stay off of her feet and to stay right where she was. And that was on top of the nearest platform next to Ratchet, that also happened to be next to the computer that he was currently glaring at. If looks could kill, then Ratchet would be shooting laser beams right out of his eyes.

But despite his bad temper and almost constant scowling, Ratchet had actually surprised her with how gentle he could be while he had cautiously, but surely wrapped up her ankle to make a tight brace for it. His actions towards her had made her feel like she was made out of one of those creepy porcelain china dolls that she sometimes saw in the front window of the antique/thrift shop that wasn't to far of a walk away from the music store that Eric worked at instead of squishy flesh and durable bones.

She also found that while what he says is negative and can be extremely rude at times, but his actions towards her well-being say another thing entirely.

If he really didn't care about them, then he wouldn't have even bothered her about her injury. He would have simply ignored her and moved on, but he didn't. He had noticed, and had insisted on helping her, even though she had made her opinions on that very clear. She didn't like doctors, she had had one too many bad experiences with them to feel comfortable around them. The only exception to this had been Doctor Bishop, but he was a different case entirely. And the only reason as to why she even relented in the first place now was because of Raf.

Ever since their first day together, Raf had always seemed to be one of her weaknesses, she didn't know how he even does it sometimes, but every time when they got into a disagreement about something and he really, really wanted it. He would always look up at her with his big chocolate brown pleading eyes that reminded her of sad puppy dog, and if she was being extra stubborn about it, then he would pull out the big guns and start quivering his bottom lip slightly in that pathetic way that makes her feel guilty for even saying no in the first place. It was so unfair.

"Cliffjumper's signal just popped back online." Ratchet told them all as both Autobots and humans came closer to hear what was going on.

"Who's Cliffjumper?" Both Astrid and Miko asked at the same time. Glancing at each other in surprise, Astrid raised one of her eyebrows, while Miko gave an annoyed huff in her direction before turning her attention back onto the Autobots.

Raf, Jack and Miko had been sitting/leaning around the platform that Ratchet had set her down on. Both Jack and Raf wanted to make sure that she was ok, while Miko… Well.. Actually, now that she thought about it. Astrid had no idea as to why she was even up here in the first place.

Rolling her eyes at Miko's attitude towards her, Astrid pulled her own attention back on to the conversation at hand.

"How is that possible?" Optimus asked, almost in disbelief.

"It isn't." Ratchet stated with certainty. "Another bug, the system is chock full of them." He added, waving his hand annoyedly at the computer.

Arcee looked up to her leader. "If there's any chance that Cliffs alive." A hopeful note in her determined voice.

Optimus nodded his head in agreement. "Ratchet, prepare sickbay." He ordered, before quietly adding. "We may need it."

After saying that, Astrid could see a slight shift in his persona as two pieces of metal slide into place over the lower half of his face, making it act like a face mask. She could also see it in the way that he held himself as well. His whole body was tense, and yet more loose at the same time. It was a stance of a warrior or a fighter.

"Hey!" Miko suddenly called out, leaning over the yellow railing. "What can we do?" She asked excitedly.

Astrid wasn't really sure if she was asking to make herself useful, or to somehow get herself in part of the action... Probably more of the last one than the first now that she thought about it.

From what little that she had been able to observe of Miko. Astrid was able to see that the Japanese girl was a risk taker, or a daredevil if you will. But the thing that bothered her the most about the girl was why did she come here to Jasper Nevada. The supposedly most boring and most uninteresting of small towns in the desert.

It was suspicious and just didn't make any kind of sense to Astrid at all, why would a girl like Miko move to the middle of nowhere, in a completely different country that had a completely different culture and language than her own? And why Jasper? of all the places that she could've gone to like New York City, Washington D.C., heck she could've gone to Las Vegas or even San Francisco, but no, she came here.

And why would her parents let her move from Tokyo to all the way over here in Jasper? There weren't any grand or prestigious schools anywhere around as far as she knew and Jasper High, while it was a good school, it certainly wasn't the best either. Did they just not care about their daughter at all? Sure, Miko was a troublemaker, probably a little bit more than what she was worth of times, but still.

Astrid eyes narrowed in suspicion as she looked at Miko as dread started to seep down into her stomach as a sudden thought came to her.

Or maybe... she was one of _his_ spies? It would make sense and it wouldn't be the first time that she and Eric had to deal with one or more of them at a time.

But if that was true, then why make up such a lame background story for herself? If Miko really was one of his spies, then she could've easily made up a much better story for herself as she would've been trained to do… or maybe she was a distraction for the real spy?

Either way, whether Miko Nakadai was real or not, Astrid would be keeping a special eye on her at all times from now on.

Optimus hesitated for a moment before saying. "Remain here with Ratchet."

"Aaaw!" Miko groaned in disappointment, her shoulders slumping.

"Aaaaww!" Ratchet groaned a moment after her in disappointment to.

Astrid had to quickly put her a hand over her mouth in order to muffle her own giggles of amusement at the scene.

Suddenly a brilliant white, blue and green swirling vortex appears within a tunnel to the side.

If Astrid wasn't already holding her mouth, it would have been open in shock and in awe at the beautiful and amazing site.

They watched as the rest of the Autobots made their way towards the vortex.

"Autobots!" Optimus called out, raising one of his long red painted arms as a signal of 'let's go' to the others, he stepped onto the ramp first, before giving out his order. "Roll out."

And with that. Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcee and Bulkhead all transformed into their own vehicle modes and put the pedal to the metal as the screeching of their tires was the last thing that she heard before they all disappeared within the swirling vortex.

"What.. just happened?" Jack asked in confusion and in slight awe.

Astrid got up from her chair to leaned against the railing with the others, in order to get better look at what they all just saw.

"I transported them to the designated cornets via groundbridge." Ratchet explained to them.

"What's a groundbridge?" Raf questioned in curiosity, with a little bit of confusion as well.

Ratchet made a noise that was halfway between a groan and a whine at the question. Making Astrid turned her head to give him a look as her eyes narrowed sharply and her lips thinned into a fine line of disapproval at his attitude.

He took a side glance at her and saw the look that she was giving him. He just rolled his eyes in exasperation before explaining. "A scaled down version of spacebridge technology." He told them, turning to face the computer again.

"Since we don't currently process that means, or the energon required for intergalactic travel." He added, a sad note in his gruff voice.

"You're stuck here." Jack stated in realization, slowly walking forward to the giant robot as he turned to look at them again. "On earth."

"With the likes of you, yes." He told them coldly, before his tone switch into a proud smugness as he continued saying. "But I constructed the groundbridge to enable travel from here to anywhere on your planet."

Astrid's eyes widen slightly at the information that he had just given them. ' _Anywhere on the planet?'_ She thought in amazement. If that was true, and she saw no reason for Ratchet to be lying to them about this, plus she had just seen it with her very own eyes that this groundbridge worked.

This brought on so many new thoughts and possibilities for her. If she were to somehow learn how to use it… Then maybe she and Eric could use it to get a head start if they were ever in a need to run away from Silas and his goons again.

' _Silas.'_ She thought bitterly to herself, her hands clenching tightly onto the railing in front of her in anger. The thoughts of Eric, Jacqueline, of her mother and of Doctor Bishop.. and so many more of the lost souls that he had broken or destroyed in one way or another along the line. All for his thirst for power.

"Whoa." Raf gasped, turning to ask Ratchet another question. "Does it work for humans?

"Natural." He answered with a simple nod of his head.

"You mean I could just shoot on over and visit my parents in Tokyo?" Miko asked curiously.

"Within moments." He told her, before a certain gleam entered into his turquoise eyes. "In fact, allow me to send you there immediately, all four of you." He said, looking almost excited for the chance of getting rid of them.

A moment of silence passes, before Miko warned him quietly. "Watch it Ratchet."

Astrid couldn't help the quiet snort of amusement that came out of her before placing her right hand over her chest. "Sorry, but it's gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of us unfortunately." She told him in a fake sympathetic voice, more amused by his attitude towards them than annoyed at the moment.

"Eh, it was worth a shot." He muttered mostly to himself, before shutting down the groundbridge and turning his attention towards making sure that the sickbay was ready for any injuries that the other Autobots might sustain while coming back from their rescue mission.

"Well I'm going to start exploring this cool place." Miko told them after Ratchet was out of sight. "Sooo, who's with me?" She asked, a mischievous note in her voice as her face split into a wide grin.

"Sure." Jack shrugged uncaringly.

But Raf seemed to hesitate for a moment. "I… think I'll stay here with Astrid." He answered, sounding a little unsure on his decision of staying behind.

Miko rolled her honey brown eyes before giving them a dismissive shrug of her shoulders, turning on the heels of her boots with her back now facing towards them. She said in a snippy tone. "Your loss then, if you prefer to stay with miss _boring_ over there, then it's fine with me."

' _Boring?'_ Astrid thought in bemusement. Her right eyebrow raising just a bit at Miko's comment.

Once both Miko and Jack were out of sight, Astrid turned her attention towards Raf, who was still not looking at her. Sighing softly, Astrid turned to sit back down in the chair and folded both of her hands together onto her lap while also crossing her legs before giving the her young friend a searching look.

"Alright Raf, what's wrong?" She finally asked after about a minute of silence.

He looked nervous about something, that much was obvious, but she wasn't sure what it could possibly be that was making him act like this.

"Can I.. ask you a question Astrid?" He asked her quietly. Still not making eye contact with her as his right hand nervously tightening its grip on the shoulder strap of his school bag that was on him.

She didn't even hesitate in answering his question. "Of course you can." She said, feeling a bit bewildered by his question as her brow creased in slight concern. "What do I always say to you when you ask me this?" She questioned encouragingly to him, trying to help him feel more comfortable with her so that he could ask his question.

"That there's no such thing as a stupid question, so long as you learn something from it." He answered, looking a bit more confident in himself.

She felt one side of her lips start to twitch upwards at his answer. "Then ask away." She told him with a casual wave of one of her hands.

"Ok…" He said absently, before nodding his head. She assumed that he had finally came to a decision on asking her his real question or not.

He finally looked at her in the eyes, his warm chocolate brown meeting her own hazel ones, before asking his question, a conference in his voice that she rarely heard from him.

"How were you able get our school bags when we were running away from the Decepticons?"

Dead silence was met with his question. Astrid sat there in stunned shock. Of all of the questions that she could think of him asking her, this was not one of them.

"What?" She laughed nervously, she didn't even know why she was laughing in the first place, but it seemed to be helping in keeping her from looking like a deer caught in the headlights as she felt her hands fold back together tightly on top her lap again.

"I've just been noticing that ever since the first day that I've met you that strange things always seem to happen whenever you're around." He continued on.

' _Crap!_ ' She thought as dread was starting to seep down into her stomach again, only this time it was much, much worse.

"Like that time when Vince tripped me in the hall, and then he got a bucket full of dirty soap water all over him as he walked through a classroom door that I know that the janitor was still using as we had just walked past him not even minutes after that happened."

' _Crap on a pogo stick!'_ She exclaimed inwardly, as her eyes widen in horror as he continued to tell her every single little weird thing that he had been noticing while being around her.

"Or that time when Sierra's friend Linda came out of the girls bathroom looking like a clown-"

"OK! I get it!" She quickly interrupted him with a harsh whisper as she leaned forwards in her chair and started waving her hands in a stopping motion in front of her before he could continue to go any further with his observations. Her eyes rapidly checked over his head to see if anyone else was nearby to hear them, seeing no one around at the moment, she turned her attention back onto him.

She could see his intelligent brown eyes watching her carefully through his red rimmed glasses, and the uneasy, but determined look on his face made her sigh in defeat. She was a fool and a complete _moron_ for even thinking that he wouldn't notice the aftermath of her actions of using her powers, or for her to just assume that he would be like most normal people, who would just simply shrug it off and walk away if they saw something that was weird and couldn't explain it in their own logical way.

But Raf wasn't like most normal people as she had come to learn in their short time of knowing each other.

She closed her eyes and raised one of her hands up to rub at her brow in frustration, feeling the dread growing into knots inside of her stomach as she tried to figure out how to handle this situation that she suddenly found herself to be in.

She didn't want to lie to him, but she couldn't exactly tell him the truth either. It would put him into much danger in knowing too much about Eric and herself.

Inwardly she gave a weary sigh. ' _Great.'_ She thought with a groan. First Eric, and now Raf, her luck lately just seemed to be getting better and better as the day continued on.

She was just about to open her mouth to gently tell him that it was none of his business, but then he surprised her with what he said next.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I just.. wanted to make sure that you know that you can trust me with anything. Just like I trust you." He told her as he nervously fixed with his glasses.

Astrid could feel her heart melting at his level of trust that he had in her, trust that she didn't feel like that she deserved from him… or from anyone else really.

"Oh Raf…" She breathed out softly, a small smile coming to her lips before she continued on. "Of course I trust you, its just that... I don't want to put you in anymore danger than you already are."

"But I'm not in any danger." He said to her while looking confused.

"Yes you are, and you have been since the day you met me." She told him earnestly. She didn't want to scare him, but she knew now that lying to him wasn't a good option either.

Raf's brow furrowed anxiously. "But why-" he started to ask her, but just then they both heard the echo Ratchet's clinking footsteps coming towards them.

Astrid leaned down and gave him a light hug for comfort while whispering into his ear. "We'll talk about this later, ok?"

She knew that most boys his age were against hugs and kisses and all that mushy stuff in general, but she also knew that unlike most boys, Raf didn't really mind to be given or to give a hug or two from time to time.

Pulling back, she saw him give her a small nod of his head in understanding.

Smiling in relief, Astrid gave his shoulder a slight squeeze before letting him go completely.

"What is this anyway?" She faintly heard Miko's question from down below.

"Broken, don't touch." Ratchet told her as he walked past her and back over to the computer.

Astrid moved her head a little in order to see Miko looking at an old piece of machinery that was placed on one of the sidewalls of a platform. Miko was just about to touch it again.

"Don't touch that either." Ratchet added, not even looking behind him to see Miko winc at being caught while quickly moving her hand away from the machine on the wall.

"Is there anything in here that we can touch?" She heard Jack ask as he came into her line of sight.

Ratchet shot them an annoyed expression.

 **Beep.**

The giant computer gave a sudden deep negative sound as a small box appeared on screen with a red X icon in the left hand side of said box.

"How come you guys are using _human_ computers?" Raf asked Ratchet.

"It certainly isn't by choice. It was handed down by the previous tenants when we inherited this former missile site, I make modifications as I see fit." He told them, staring forlornly at the computer screen.

Without warning, the computer gave even more negative beeping as more boxes filled all of the screens.

Ratchet gave a weary groan as he looked at the mess.

"I think that I can fix that." Raf announces happily as he races towards her and slips off his backpack from his shoulders to open it and get his laptop. Looking eager to help.

"Really?" Ratchet asks doubtfully.

Smiling, Astrid got up from her chair and silently motioned for Raf to use it.

Nodding his thanks, he hops into the chair before opening up his laptop and getting himself hooked up into the Autobot system.

Ratchet continued on with his skepticism. "You know this is complex technology don't you, I mean it isn't a child's toy."

"Oh shush and just watch, Raf's has the most amazing computer skills for a twelve year old." Astrid said while casually leaning her rear against the desk with her arms casually crossed over her chest.

"And a quarter." Raf added, not even looking up from the laptop on top of his lap.

"Sorry." She apologized with a chuckle, always finding it amusing that he insisted on putting that little percentage onto his age. "Let me rephrase then. He's the most amazing computer hacker for a twelve and a _quarter_ year old."

She watched with even more amusement as Raf's ears grew a healthy shade of red at her complement.

He cleared his throat embarrassingly. "Um, now try." He said to Ratchet as he looked up towards him.

Still looking skeptical, Ratchet decided that it might as well be worth a shot, nothing else that he and others did seemed to work. So he pushed a button and like magic, all of the boxes disappeared from all of the screens on the big computer.

Looking back down at the youngest human child in surprise, Ratchet couldn't help but gain a little bit of respect for the little human boy.

The deep baritone of Optimus Prime's voice suddenly called out from the computer. _**"**_ _Ratchet! Bridge us back! **"**_

Ratchet immediately snapped into action as his hands start flying across the keypads, his full attention was focused now on getting his people back safe and sound.

At this point, both Jack and Miko had raced up the ladder and stood next to the railing to get a better vantage point in seeing what was going on.

 _ **"**_ Use _the arrival coordinates. Now! **"**_

Ratchet pulled the lever down to activate the groundbridge and the swirling vortex came back to life.

A few seconds later, they could see all of the Autobots coming, racing back through the groundbridge with a large wave of blue fire following closely behind their bumpers.

Optimus was the last one to barely come through the groundbridge as he transformed back into his bipedal form and jumped the rest of the way out of the vortex and did half of a one handed backflip, Ratchet was quick in lifting the lever back up again to cut off the deadly wall of blue flames as it came closer towards them all.

And as the portal closed with a puff of smoke, Optimus slowly rose back up to his feet as swirling smoke started to move around him. Giving him the look of a strong and fearless warrior with a hint of mystery in there as well.

Standing next to Jack's right side, she heard as Raf, Jack and Miko all gave looks and sounds of amazement and awe at what they all just saw.

Ok, even she had admit it, that was pretty awesome looking.

"Cutting it a bit close." Ratchet commented almost fondly before getting back down to business. "What about Cliffjumper?" He asked, quickly noticing that he was not with them.

Bumblebee, Optimus and Bulkhead all looked at each other before bowing their heads mournfully for their fallen friend.

Astrid gave them a sad and sympathetic look before bowing her head slightly in mournful respect for their fallen friend as well.

She couldn't help but be reminded of Jacqueline, and of how she and Eric had lost her as she slowly started to fade away in their arms, telling them both to never give up, to keep fighting for their freedom, and to always take care of each other.

Tears started to form in her eyes at the memory, but she hastily blinked her eyes and tilted her head slightly up to get rid of them quickly before anyone noticed.

"What was that explosion? Was there a fight? Can I come next time?" Miko suddenly started asking abrasively in an excited manner, Astrid didn't know which was worse, either Miko was completely oblivious to the fact that the Autobots had just lost a good friend, or she just didn't care.

Hot anger shot through her body as she felt both of her hands clenching tightly onto the railing in front of her, it was so tempting to go over and just smack her again, but before she could make a move she felt one of Raf's smaller hands placing itself on top of her own, her anger slowly started to fade away into the background with his calming and familiar presence.

Without looking, she moved their hands together until their fingers interlaced with one another as her thumb gave a series of gentle tapping against the back of his palm, giving him a silent message.

Thank you.

She had learned how to use morse code from Jacqueline when she was little, it had been their own way of silently communicating with each other without anyone ever really knowing.

She didn't know if he knew what her tapping meant, he probably just thought it was one of her many weird little quirks.

She watched as Arcee came out from behind Optimus, glaring at Miko as she growled out angrily. "Look-"

But fortunately for the Japanese girl's sake Jack suddenly stepped in. "Hey hey Miko, let's go see what the bots hide in their sock drawer?" He said as he dragged her way, trying to distract her (and not succeeding very well) so that she wouldn't say something else that would get herself into even more trouble with the furious looking Arcee.

"Seriously?" Miko asked, unimpressed with his excuse for dragging her way.

"Arcee, what did you see?" Optimus asked her gently, needing to know what she saw and why they hadn't been able to save Cliffjumper.

Arcee hugged herself for comfort as she told them what she saw while trying to rescue Cliff.

"Not Cliff, at least not anymore. He was mutated, butchered, like something from those Con experiments during the war." She told them, her voice quivering the more upset she got while remembered the raging, soulless monster that had been Cliff.

Arcee suddenly fainted, falling, but before she could fall completely she was able to catch herself with one of the many crates that were laying around the base.

Astrid's eyes widen in surprise and concern as she watched the other Autobots ask the blue female autobot if she was alright.

"I'm fine, just dizzy." Was her quick reply.

"Robots that get dizzy?" Miko asked in bewilderment.

"Robots with emotions." Raf stated almost factually.

"Robots who can die." Jack said in realization as he looked at Arcee and the other Autobots.

"It would seem that their not that much different from us." Astrid commented empathetically as she watched Ratchet examine Arcee for any injuries.

The other three all gazed at her with a variety of expressions on their face.

"Hm..huh, what is this? Ratchet asked after finishing with his scanning. The scanner had turned red each time that it had past over her hand. There was something on the back of her hand that looked like some kind of shiny purple slime on it.

Arcee rubbed at her helm. "Don't know. Cliff was covered in it. Leaking it."

Ratchet scrape some of the purple slime off of her hand with a knife like object.

"Go take a decontamination bath. Now." He ordered.

Arcee nodded and let Bumblebee help in taking her towards the decontamination room without incident.

Out of the corner of her eye, Astrid saw Jack take out his phone as he frowned upon opening the screen.

"O-Optimus I hate to bug, but no bars." Jack pointed out as he showed his phone up to Optimus.

Astrid took out her own phone as well to see that he was right, her phone had no signal at all.

"A security precaution. The silo walls isolate all radio waves."

Jack sighed. "Well if I don't call my mom like _now_ I'm pretty sure the cops will be out looking for me."

Optimus leaned in closer towards them, looking at Jack with a serious expression. "Have you broken a law?" He questioned.

"Uh curfew." Jack shrugs. "Its after ten p.m."

"I better get home to, or I'll be grounded for a year." Raf added in.

"Don't worry, you can always blame it on me if you want. Who knows, I might even be able to convince your mom to only ground you for six months instead of a whole year." Astrid said to him teasingly with a slight wink and a smile.

He smiled back.

"Earth customs. I hadn't considered." Optimus said, becoming thoughtful as he took a step back from them. "But the issue of your safety still remains. He told them as he quickly thought over his options.

He turned to Bulkhead. "Bulkhead, accompany Miko home."

"Awesome! My host parents will freak!" Miko exclaimed as she moved and waved her arms around excitedly.

"And maintain covert surveillance in vehicle from." He continued on after hearing what Miko said.

Bulkhead nodded his head in understanding. "Curbside duty, got it."

"Aaaw." Miko moaned in disappointment, shoulders slumping.

Optimus then turned to Bumblebee. "Bumblebee, you'll watch over Raf."

Bumblebee looked to Raf to see his reaction.

Raf gave a small smile as he looked back at him.

Astrid gave a silent nod of approval at this paring. She could tell that Raf really liked hanging out Bumblebee, and it seemed that Bumblebee felt the same.

Bumblebee would make a good guardian for him.

Both Optimus and Bulkhead turned to Ratchet and Arcee, who had just came back from her decontamination bath, looking like she was back to her normal self again.

"Ratchet-"

"Busy." Ratchet swiftly replied, waving one of his hands dismissively behind him.

Optimus then turned to Arcee. "Arcee, you'll accompany Jack."

Neither Jack or Arcee looked happy about this arrangement.

Jack even looked a little scared at the prospect of having Arcee as his ride home and guardian. And Astrid didn't really blame him for being so.

"Woah, still dizzy." Arcee said, trying to pretend that she still didn't feel so good, not wanting to be a babysitter for one of the humans.

But then Ratchet had to ruined it for her by saying. "You're fine, says your physician."

Arcee shot him a slight glare at his back before sighing in resignation as she made her way over towards the other two assigned guardians, who now stood near to the exit with their assigned human next to them.

Optimus then suddenly turned his attention back onto Ratchet. "Ratchet, you will be the one to accompany Astrid."

"WHAT!" Both Astrid and Ratchet exclaimed loudly at the same time in surprise.

"No." Astrid stated firmly. Her arms crossed over her chest, glaring with her golden gaze at them in defiance. She didn't need nor did she want a giant grumpy robot as her guardian. She already had enough to worry about as it was right now, and she was old enough to look after herself as she had been doing so for a long time now. Besides, with her powers, she knew that she would be able to at least be able to run away from the Decepticons if need be. Not that they knew that little bit of information of course.

"Absolutely not." Ratchet responded with a low growl, crossing his arms over his chest as well as he glowered up at his leader in annoyance. "Optimus, I'm busy enough as it is, and I don't need the responsibilities of looking after a human child along with everything else."

Astrid just barely managed to not roll her eyes at being called a child. "For your information I'm seventeen, almost a year away from being a human adult." She told them rather curtly, before taking in a deep breath through her nose to help ease her rising temper. "So while I do appreciate the thought and concern, I don't need a guardian. I can take care of myself just fine." She tried continuing on more calmly with a little bit more success, but even she could still hear the simmering anger and annoyance beneath her calm tone.

Optimus narrowed his eyes slightly at their shared behavior, but remained calm as he continued. "This isn't a request, it's an order."

Both Ratchet and Optimus stared intensely at each other, making it look like they were having a silent conversation just between the two of them. After a few long seconds of deafening silence, Ratchet finally gave a weary and frustrated sigh of defeat before silently nodding his head in reluctant acceptance at his leader.

Optimus then finally turned his full attention onto her.

Astrid stubbornly stood her ground while they silently eyeballed each other, her unwavering gaze meeting his own strong and unbending one. It was now a battle of wills for them.

She knew that he was only trying to protect her and the others from their enemies, if she were in his position she would be doing the same, but she had secrets and responsibilities of her own that she had to up keep, and she couldn't really do them if she was to constantly have a grumpy and opinionated babysitter breathing down her neck.

She could see that Optimus wasn't going to back down anytime soon if his narrow eyes and stiff poster was anything to go by.

She sighed. "Look, I know that you're only trying to protect me and the others from the Decepticons, but I have responsibilities and people that I have to protect as well. And I can't do them if I'm constantly being followed around by you guys." She told him bluntly, needing him to at least understand _why_ she didn't want a guardian.

His expression softened a bit at her rather blunt confession, but he still remained firm in his decision of making Ratchet her guardian.

"Be that as it may, I however cannot in good conscience leave you defenseless to our enemies."

Astrid sighed again while rubbing at the back of her neck in frustration. She wanted so badly to just tell them that she would be able to take care of herself just fine against any enemy, both human and cybertronian, but she also knew that if she did that, then she would have to explain to them all of the how's and why's of what she could do, and she couldn't do that, not without putting everyone in even more danger than they already were in.

It really didn't look like that she had that much of a choice, but it didn't mean that she was going to go down without at least a little bit of a fight.

"All right, how about we make a deal."

Everyone blinked in surprise at this, including Optimus. "And what kind of a deal would that be." He asks her uncertainty.

"I'll accept having a guardian, but I want to be able to leave anytime that I want with no questions asked about where I'm going or what I'm doing." She told him assertively before holding out her hand to seal the deal. "So, do we have a deal?"

He gazed at her for a long moment. He couldn't help but think of _her_ each time when this human girl would say or do something that would remind him of her. If it weren't for her _very_ human appreciate, he would have sworn that she was a younger version of her, or at the very least her daughter.

But he knew that both theories were completely impossible to be true.

He raised his much larger hand towards her own, and gently shook her tiny hand with just one of his fingers.

"Deal."

* * *

 **A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. I will admit that I'm not completely happy with this chapter, but I figured that you guys have been waiting long enough for an update that I decided to just throw caution into the winds and see what happens.**

 **And also, just so that everyone knows that I will be changing a few things here and there for nearly all of the original characters in the show, not so much so to the point where nobody can't recognize them, but just enough to be able to fit my OC's into the story and other plot points as well.**

 **And if you can't already guess, I'm kind of trying to give Astrid and Miko sort of a love/hate relationship. I guess you can say that I'm giving some of my own thoughts and feelings about Miko onto Astrid, because I've always had complex feelings about her as a character whenever I watch the show. One moment I think she's awesome and then the next I think she's the worst.**

 **Am I the only one that thinks that?**

 **But anyway, Thank you for all of you who have reviewed, favorited and followed this story. It really does mean a lot to me.**


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